1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with

I've been meaning for a while to write about Dioner Navarro. The former Dodger catcher, who went with Jae Seo to Tampa Bay in the June 2006 Mark Hendrickson/Toby Hall trade, has suffered through some rough times - the least of which was the 70 OPS+ he posted for the then-Deviled Rays last season.

In September 2003, his wife suffered a brain aneurysm and nearly died. In July 2006, his SUV flipped with him, his wife and infant son inside. (Everyone, amazingly, was okay.)

On the field, in May 2006 he went on the disabled list and lost his starting Dodger catcher job to Russell Martin. And this past April, Navarro suffered lacerations on this throwing hand.

Now, Navarro and his family all seem healthy - and so is Navarro's bat. In 152 plate appearances this season, his OPS+ is 117 (.364 on-base percentage, .427 slugging percentage). He has thrown out 9 of 29 attempted basestealers.

"The people around me have helped me tremendously," he told Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com. "They [coaches and teammates] always knew that I was capable of doing this, but having them [work with me] has helped my game so much."

Things are going so well, Navarro wasn't even suspended despite being involved in last week's Rays-Red Sox brawl.

Then there's Aybar, who was traded by the Dodgers to Atlanta for Wilson Betemit in 2006. A substance abuse problem was revealed in the spring of 2007, and then in February, Aybar was arrested in the Dominican Republic on domestic violence charges that were later dropped.

Of course, this is very often not the end of a domestic violence story, and I haven't found anything to indicate what kind of counseling or treatment Aybar is receiving. All I can report is that Aybar is now a Ray, and after recovering from a left hamstring injury that hastened his replacement at third base by Evan Longoria, Aybar is 12 for 41 with six doubles and a homer (132 OPS+) while playing some third, first and designated hitter.

Jon, I hate to bring this to your attention, as it puts a damper on a heartwarming story, but Dioner fought with a teammate today.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3432656
Apparently, Navarro and pitcher Matt Garza had a heated conversation on the mound and later in the dugout it got physical.

26 - I have me beloved Mexican announcers. I don't think that this is just some guys sitting in a studio either (so I can't change the idioma on the tube). They actually have a one of those roaming announcers. They tend to pretty much stick to the action on the field and don't do much musing,

One of the announcers is Candy Maldonado. He says that he was asking around the club house about Penny this year and the guys were telling him that he has not been agressive enough and has been nibbling. And that he has a knee problem.

i think pennys biggest problem is he doesnt have good secondary pitches, his curveball is average, and his splitter is below average, most times it looks like hes just throwing a fastball straight into the ground when he throws his splitter. But, he never really has had good secondary pitches, the reason why he had so much success the last 2 years was he was able to locate his 95 mph fastballs on both sides of the plate on the corners, this year he doesnt have command of the fastball, like that 3-1 pitch to derosa.

Did anyone else think Penny's stuff looked a lot better after he got hit in the foot? I swear he pitched better after that. Maybe he should get hit in the foot more often. We'll see how he does next inning and thereafter of course.

58 = He was right, Ethier should've held up, that wasn't even a good pitch to hit. BUT why does it have to be a veteran player vs. a younger player thing, again? Ethier should know better, not because he's a rookie, which he isn't. Mostly I just wanted to tell Morgan to shut up.

Yeah, I was thinking Russell was half Kent, half Piazza with the stache, but I prefer to think Piazza.

I can see how you might be confused. But keep in mind that young players care about their stats, and veterans only care about winning. Ergo, young players want the sac fly (cause it won't count against them), while veterans prefer the Olney (as a means of demonstrating their selfless dedication to the team).

71 - And the rest of Gammons anecdote there was kind of interesting too -- that Torre was getting frustrated with Penny, even watched a bullpen session and kind of yelled at him, wondered if his head was in the game, etc. I actually liked hearing that. Between his shoulder feeling better and Torre getting at Penny a bit maybe he'll turn the corner.

Hearing Morgan and Miller go on and on about Penny and Joe Torre's handling thereof, I'd like to ask the community of Dodger Thoughts to come up with a consensus of how much credit/blame Joe Torre should get for how well Penny does from here on out. If anything, Torre's track record suggests that the way he handles "struggling" pitchers does not make them better, so I'm pretty dubious that getting all Big Brother on Penny's bullpen sessions is a surefire cure for what ails him. So, let's just agree in advance on what percentage of the credit Torre should get. Since we'll have no way to verify anybody's claims once we've seen the results, let's decide how much credit blame to give Torre.

What I'd like from everybody is a) their projection for Penny's ERA over the rest of the season assuming he had an average manager and b) what percentage of the credit Torre should get for the over- or under-performance. So, if you'll join me in this exercise, I'll try to tabulate the results. Then, when the inevitable news stories about Penny's struggles or lack thereof and whatever Torre's spin will be eventually come out, we can just ignore them. If I remember, we can then give out scores at the end of the season. I'll start:

69 Has anyone ever studied the run expectancies between 75% basestealer on 1st, no outs, trying to steal; and staying on 1st with a LH hitter up. Doesn't the first baseman on the bag add to LH hitting success? Is it a small effect?

95 - Nope. I don't know the answer myself, but it was presented as mutliple choice and that name was not on the list. I am keeping the list secret because I figure that it is to help the general audience and would not be needed by a group as storied as you DTs.

102 It was bizarre. With all that bluster, the simple logic wasn't completely connected. If the loss of Furcal is the single, largest cause of Dodger downturn, aren't there exactly two obvious things that happened after he went down? 1. Offensive black hole at SS (but in the 8 hole) 2. JP leading off every day.

I haven't had much of a chance to check in here over the last couple days. Has there been a consensus on the wisdom of the Berroa trade? My own assumption is that it was yet another case of Proven Vetruhn Leadership outweighing Obvious Case Of Suck, but what do I know?

All right, if no one wants to take the 88 bait, anybody want to offer up what they think Furcal will hit over the rest of the season? Torre and every announcer has made him out to be Elvis. I've got him down for .285/.352/.415.

This should provoke a lot of reaction. Not only is Angel Berroa not a major league hitter, he's not even league average at short defensively. Bob Schaefer supposedly suggested this; why isn't he fired?

178 - It's not a big deal, but by now you know everything in this forum gets analyzed over and over. If there were bigger news out there, we'd talk about it, but this is the news of the day.

Beyond that, "can do no worse" is never a very tantalizing argument for an acquisition, especially when the upside is so limited. There's a legit argument that Berroa's offense won't justify replacing Hu's defense, woeful as Hu's offense is.

I'm fine with Hu being sent down, but it's okay not to like the Berroa acquisition.

I feel Bob H. complaint is a legitimate one, I mean for me I'd rather have Hu manning Short stop then somebody like Berroa who has no future as a Dodger, I would have stuck with our own, but the brain trust feels differently.

Berroa's age has been a question mark for some time. He initially claimed to be two years younger than the age he acknowledges now. As for "wishing" I've been astonished how Schaeffer, Ned, and Torre all admit that they made this deal without really knowing if the guy can still play. "We'll wait and see." I realize we didn't give up much, but come on, is this the sort of foresight that has so much money on the DL?

178
After you have watched Angel look just as bad as Hu at the plate and just as bad as Offerman in the field we'll see if it is no big deal.
If they want a temp SS then get a SS not a player who is so lousy he can't even get playing team on a team who until recently was starting a SS hitting 154. He was unable to crack a depth chart of Pena, German, and Aviles but here he is in DS starting for us.

If things continue to go this poorly I will put this to Joe Morgan-- The Dodgers managed a split in this series with one of the hotter teams in baseball, even throwing one of their most unpredictable starters--- what do you think this portends? I would love to hear the response or answer, although I doubt I could understand it.

It's like there saying, kid you ain't cutting it we're gonna have to get somebody else because WE DON'T TRUST YOU CAN TURN IT AROUND, I feel there sending the wrong message plus the dude was playing great defense, NedCo just isn't patient enough.

You know, even though it is disappointing that the Celtics will beat the Lakers in the finals, the fact that the Lakers ended up with the best record in the West and made it to the finals was quite an accomplishment. If Bynum can come back next year and pick up where he left off, they should be the favorites to win it all.

Given the alternative presented by Berroa, I'd rather see Hu struggle at the plate until Furcal gets back, just so we have his glove in there (I think that the pitchers would agree). I hope to be surprised.

you know, as rambling and content-free as this is, it's not, actually, a criticism of the young players: it sounds to me as if Gammons and Morgan are saying "these Dodger kids are no better or worse than any other kids; but unlike other kids they lack suitable veteran leadership"

Yes Troy Percival who sits in the bullpen the whole game is the one grabbing the young kids in the dugout explaining their mistakes for the Rays. That is why the Rays are so good this year, not Kazmir, Upton, Longoria, etc.

I have respect for Gammons, but ironically his point was not just supporting Morgan, but he made the point of young players constantly coming up and yes than having the PVL's offer their experience and clubhouse info to help them along. Ironically while the Dodgers had an influx of young players last year, it has not been a steady flow of players.

The logical player to eventually do this is Martin. Anything about the Dodgers from Morgan always has to be taken with a grain of salt. However a nice clean extra base hit from one of our players with someone on would offer the most help in tonight's game as well as going forward. We need Furcal back ASAP

Here was tonight's irony - as the whole conversation was taking place the last inning, they completely ignored Loney drawing a walk as the tying run. It's exactly the kind of thing they were talking about, but they're so busy making their point that they don't pay it any mind.

Of course you want players to do the right thing. Of course you want young players to learn. No one disagrees with that. The endless problem is ignoring the good things the kids do and the bad things the vets do.

247 - Frankly, I felt Miller injected some skepticism into the conversation, although clearly he was letting Morgan carry it. And it's true, Morgan indicated that he ultimately believed the kids would get it.

But the endless repetition of this as the story of the Dodgers is just too much.

Matt Kemp is on pace to break the Dodger season record for strikeouts. Billy Grabarkewitz has held the record for 38 years, he had 149 in 1970. Kemp is on pace to have 156, but his impending suspension might throw him off track.

re. Jon's comments: I have to say, watching baseball and listening to announcers over the years, conventional baseball thinking is simply unable to account for the possibility (indeed, the fact) that veteran players also make dumb plays.

All dumb players made by veterans are merely the exceptions that prove the "rule", which is that veteran players play smart ball.

283 Great hitter? I really don't want to get into the discussion again, but Furcal is not a great hitter. I would replace him with Hu or eventually Dejesus before I would pay 15 million a year. That money would be better used to lock up Martin and others.

277 - Only in retrospect when they became states, I think. And that was different, in that it was generally US citizens mmigrating there. As I recall, you couldn't run for president, however, if you had been born outside one of the states.

if we developed great hitting I wouldn't mind a Hu (awesome D no bat player) to play short but as of right now I'd like Furcal to stay for at least 2 years, any of you agree with me or should we give the position to Hu next year.

297 - I recall that there was an issue with Barry Goldwater in 1960, so, perhasp the Supreme Court resolved this techncial issue, i.e., the Constitution saying that you have to be born in one of the states. I am guessing at the time that they were afraid that some English born fellow might run. In any event Puertoricans were granted citizenship in 1917 (just in time to be drafted into the war).

What do you guys consider "great"? Maybe it's the definition of the word that is our disagreement. Great hitters to me are A-Rod, Barry, and so forth. There are at least 5 shortstops I would trade Furcal for today.

296 - I've just never been impressed with a free-throw differential as evidence as something unfair is going on. The underlying assumption that two teams should have the same amount of free throws never made sense to me.

309
I am sure you would take most of them based off youth and not actual production. I would take Hanley (even with the terrible D), Reyes, and Jeter over Furcal, but that is probably it. Not sure about Tulo.

It appears that the weight of the Celtics breezing into the Finals was too much and they struggled on the road in the first two series and then they faced their tough challenge when Detroit won Game 2 of the last series.

It appears that the weight of the Celtics breezing into the Finals was too much and they struggled on the road in the first two series and then they faced their tough challenge when Detroit won Game 2 of the last series.

If I were Phil Jackson, I would employ a "Hack-a-whomever" strategy for the remainder of the game. Foul the Celtics immediately when they have the ball, and commit intentional offensive fouls when the Lakers have the ball. Repeat until every single Laker fouls out, and the team loses by disqualification.

Players are not paid on their ranking in terms of their position relative to other players in the league. Furcal would have the advantage of being the best player available which is a powerful negotiating tool.

Everything will change when the series goes back to L.A. I dont know if we'll win all 3, but home court is so huge in the NBA. The Celtics wont be shooting over 50% from 3 nor have the free-throw differential they had tonight. Its really amazing how much better teams are at home in the playoffs.

332 Rollins is overrated, but I would trade Furcal for him in a second. Drew will get on base at a better rate than Furcal over the next three years. Guillen can't play defense like Furcal, but his VORP, OPS+, or any stat you want to use says he's a better overall player. He is two years older, that's why I gave him a maybe.

Definitely agree, but I'm talking about right now. He is one of the worst fielding shortstops in the game and he is also 4 years older than Raffy. Jeter will be in Cooperstown, but if both are healthy, give me Raffy.

So what's the general consensus on what the team needs to do to turn this season around? The current team is obviously not cutting it. Maybe it's time to trade Loney or Kemp for a power hitter at OF or 1B.

Perhaps nobody has thought it worth discussing, but why are the Dodgers wearing the old-style batting helmets this season, not the ventilated ones? I thought the new helmets, when they came in, were mandatory.

351 -- Wish I could say that season 7 of Trailer Park Boys was good, but I can't. Oh, well, maybe you will enjoy it more than I did. Have you watched any other Canadian stuff since you asked me for recommendations? If you are open to a gritty drama, a DVD for the first season of a great series called Intelligence is out.

364 -- Do you ever download TV episodes from torrents? I wonder if Finkleman's non-Newsroom stuff is available that way. I have all of the Finkleman television stuff on videos I recorded off of TV. It is too bad I don't have the means to copy my videos onto discs, as I would make copies for you. Maybe a friend of mine who has that ability wouldn't mind copying something, but I don't know how much he would go to the trouble of copying.

Mike DiGiovanna almost seems proud that he had apparently never heard of "Smilla's Sense of Snow" before today. I'm not saying he should have heard of it, but I personally never like to brag about being ignorant about something.

I actually thought the book was a little overrated, so I never ended up seeing the movie.

370
I watched the movie because of her and the great name. I don't remember it being bad but it certainly didn't do anything for me.

Watched the Kite Runner last night, loved the movie but how possible was the reality of him escaping into Pakistan with the child? Amir's father was quite a character, one of the best I've seen in the movies in quite a while. We planned to follow that up with Charlie Wilsons War but sleep beckoned and we answered it's call.

371 - Okay, bragging wasn't the right word. But he didn't attempt to hide that he hadn't heard of it, which I find odd. Why would you want to go out of your way to show you didn't know something? It doesn't help the story any. If Titanic had cut into the game broadcast, the story would be just as good.

Did anyone see Navarro getting into it with his pitcher after he shrugged him off twice and then gave up a monster home run?
You don't normally see a catcher give it to a pitcher on the mound in front of everyone and Garza let him have it in the dugout at the end of the inning.

334 - Its actually a fairly complicated issue largely because it is not a question of citizenship per se and the 14th amendment added new concepts as to "natural born". Clearly in the case of Goldwater and even perhaps for McCain a non-frivolous case might be made. The problem is that anyone can run for president, the constitutional question is whether they could hold office.

373
With teenage daughters the fact they like Friends will be the least of your worries. At that age we were sneaking the girls out of their houses. It still amazed me how oblivious parents were to what their girls were upto.

378
I came within several weeks of being born in Taiwan instead of Glendale. So even though I was a citizen there would be a question of being able to hold office as a President if I'd been born in Taiwan?

380 - Well, at least Bill Richardson disagrees with you. Perhaps he was spinning, but he thanked his father for having his mother go to Pasadena to give birth to him so that he could one day run for president.

Thanks. That little spinner, he never mentioned that. In the interview he kept focusing on his father and the fact that his father had been born on a boat off the coast of Nicaragua and that this had haunted him all his life, so he wanted his son to be born on US soil.

I'd vote for Toy Cannon and defend his constitutional right to hold office with armed bears.

My wife is layed up at the moment with some torn knee ligaments. I was keeping her company the other day while she watched a syndicated episode of Friends. It was dreadful. I don't remember hating it this much when it was in first run, but now it may be the worst show ever.

There is a God. The crappy DVD from Hollywood Video stopped working and I had to get up to fix it which means I might as well change the channel. No doubt girls will come back in and complain "Hey, I was watching that."

a disappointing and frustrating evening. I had great seats for the dodger game tonight, and a pass for the all you can eat in the sports bar.

After watching the dodgers struggle to put runs on the board again, I went up to the bar with some friends for the fourth quarter of the laker game, while i got to see a decent comeback..I was left thoroughly disappointed after both losses, especially what i saw a must win for the lake show..

One of the summer projects in our house is cleaning out the garage. This includes shredding the 10+ years worth of bills, insurance forms and cancelled checks we have in boxes. You want a reason not to start a family--money. Its an expensive proposition. I'd be retired and living on an island without kids. Even nursery school was expensive and we went to a co-op.
To give you an idea how old some of this stuff is I found some LA Cellular bills. I forgot all about life before Verizon and AT&T took over the world.

407 -- White was on the radio very briefly, and he just addressed the questions the two hosts put to him. He was asked about Ethan Martin, and he told us what we already know about Martin. That was it for the recent draft. He was asked about why he drafts high school players. Nothing we haven't heard before.

410The Dodgers clearly miss injured shortstop Rafael Furcal and even center fielder Andruw Jones, who  as poorly as he was hitting  at least provided veteran presence in the lineup.

Amazing that guys like Rodenthal get paid to say this kinda stuff. Seriously: is there absolutely no quality control in the MSM these days? Does no one actually read the material to ensure that it makes sense before it goes out?

411 I know. Sure the kids look good statistically but they don't know things veterans know, they feel "entitled," and they lack "presence." I just wonder who is spewing this nonsense in his ear. By the way, did you catch the Berroa comment at the bottom?

412
No, I had stopped reading after the first Dodger blurb. I'm not surprised Berroa didn't want to be in AAA, and I'm not surprised that some team (especially one run by Ned) might think that Berroa would be more motivated (and thus perform better) in the big leagues. The problem is that Berroa at his very best was average, and and was only average for one year. He has been terrible every year since.

413 My problem isn't with Berroa, really. He was cheap and will be gone soon. My problem is with the mindset that trades for Berroa while admitting they have no clue what to expect, or signs a backup catcher with the yips, or keeps a pinch hitter who can't hit on the roster.

416 Based on recent public quotations, it's hard to identify a Dodger who feels more entitled than Kent.

My problem is with the mindset that trades for Berroa while admitting they have no clue what to expect

AKA "Who'sToSayberMetrics"

or signs a backup catcher with the yips

Incompetence and no player evaluation ability.

or keeps a pinch hitter who can't hit on the roster

Some kind of nostalgic/romantic commitment to older players and the "Baseball Guy" idea that every team needs these kind of players in the dugout/locker room and on the field in order to succeed. Plus, Ned seems to be concerned about hurting people's feelings, especially those of veteran players whom he probably likes a lot as people.

419420 Berroa's age, as I've mentioned, has been subject to debate. He now says he's two years older than he once claimed. You have to wonder if that's optimistic.

423 I've been thinking about that too. If Rosenthal has an ounce of integrity (yeah, I know) "club officials" doesn't refer to a player or coach. Doesn't sound like White or Ng. The one guy on the list whose job is tied to the 2008 record is Ned. Perhaps this is that "reverse psychology" Andy used to use so well on Opie.

This concept of entitlement if anything is being used as if it were negative when, Martin, Loney, Kemp, Ethier, DeWitt should be told they are now entitled and this is your team--now go out there and win some ballgames. Don't confuse them by having Kent and Pierre on the team or hitting anywhere other than 7th and 8th.

I was at the game last night, and I enjoyed it. The offense is anemic, but it is encouraging to see our pitching handle the Cubs pretty well. Penny seems to be getting into a lot of hitters counts, and they are hitting him hard when he does.

I know this is being pretty optimistic, but I feel like this team is going to catch fire pretty soon. If Furcal can come back 100%, I think it will make quite the difference.

Also, if it's true that the kinds aren't blossoming into real baseball players, shouldn't the veterans be on the hook for failing to provide that leadership and guidance?

This is what bugs me. On one hand, we're told we need veterans because they create a winning atmosphere, show the kids the right way to play, don't complain about playing time, do veteranny stuff like confront teammates in private rather than blabbing to the media, etc. etc. etc.

But then every time we turn around, we get examples of how our veterans aren't doing the things we're told we need veterans to do. Our veterans complain if they're not playing, run to the media to complain about their teammates, don't appear to teach our children well, etc.

At the very least, if he can't resolve the clubhouse issues (which is in part what he was paid to do), shouldn't Torre be telling the players and coaches to keep everything in house? Is that too much to ask for $4 million dollars?

Kenny Easler was Vegas' hitting coach when Loney was there and doing poorly at the beginning of 2007 and wasn't at vegas in 2006 when Loney hit .383. In 2006, Easler was at the Dodgers AA team and LaRoche, Loney, Martin, Ethier, and Kemp weren't. I think DeWitt went back to A ball in 2006 while Easler was the AA hitting coach. I haven't verified anything other than where Easler was in 2006 and 2007.

If Ned and Joe are not going to accept any heat and they want instead blame inexperience, maybe at least Easler should come under the microscope.

453 Don't forget, had Kemp been thrown out for arguing balls and strikes, it would be cited as an example of his immaturity and lack of baseball savvy. But when Kent does it, it's a positive that should be emulated by these meddling kids.

I dunno you guys, I thought I saw mostly positive things from the Cubs series this weekend. We stifled the Cubs offense for the most part and managed a split with the best team in the NL. Not sure where all this "vets vs kids" brouhaha is coming from, but with Furcal back we should be a-ok.

437 - I thought that was such an odd topic during last night's broadcast. In one breath they talk about Kent being frustrated that this generation doesn't question umpires etc. and then they we turn around talk about how the kids aren't "getting it" and they shouldn't have the audacity to question veterans. These stories and commentators are so without logic that it borders on the surreal.

429/433 - That seemed to be Joe Morgan's inadvertent argument last night. He can't bring himself to criticize old veterans like Kent, whom he certainly sides with on these issues. Yet he called on personal experience to point out how Nellie Fox and others helped him to learn how to play the game when he first came up. Without intending to, I really thought he was calling out the PVLs for not helping the kids.

But I guess the follow up argument is that these dang kids just won't listen, with their iPods and Xboxes and what not.

I guess the follow up argument is that these dang kids just won't listen, with their iPods and Xboxes and what not

I don't reject that possibility, but I haven't been shown any evidence that it (if true) affects team performance. Not only that, but why do we need veterans teaching the kids anyway? Isn't that what we're paying the coaches to do? If not, what are we paying the coaches to do?

But guys, I gotta say, after spending some time around the team, my opinions have changed a little bit. I'm not saying that the veteran leadership is good, but some of the kids could be a little more focused. Not saying they are to blame or should be traded or whatever, but it is possible that trading one of them would scare the daylights out of the rest of them, and perhaps light a fire.

445- I have a sister six years younger than me, and about 20 years less sure of herself. When I got to be about 12 or 13 years old, my mom would have me babysit her all the time.

If something went wrong--broken window from playing ball, mud all over the house, rabbit flew the coop and ended up down the street--I would take the heat, even if it was Sarah's doing. Being the older sibling, I was supposed to be the one who policed her, and lead by example.

I have a feeling this is the way it goes in most households. I have no idea why when it comes to the media writing about the Dodgers, it's the other way around.

449 Hard to say - do you mean you may remove post no. 453 - whatever it is - as soon as, or before, it appears? You're the only one who can do that. (It's also unlike you to bracket numbers, so I'm very curious.)

450 - I wonder how a trade of one of them shakes things up. Do they have it so good here in LA that the threat of being traded to Pittsburgh would scare the living daylights out of them? If I was Andre Ethier, I might welcome the opportunity to play 162 games for the Pirates. It would definitely help his future earning potential.

Why is it only the Dodgers that get the "we're losing because of the kids" story. Why don't, say, the Diamondbacks get similar stories about how their failing because Eric Byrnes is hurt and isn't there being veterany, and maybe they should send Chris Young and his career .237 average back down to the minors.

The other thing that gets me is that most of these columnists/TV talking heads saying these things are not in the locker room every day. How can they possibly understand the dynamic from their living rooms? I think the only people who would be allowed to make "so and so should be traded" statements are Ken Gurnick, Dylan, Diamond, and Tony.

molly, your credibility obviously opens my mind to the idea of a trade of one of the young guys, but i cant figure out who it would be and for what. do you have any ideas about that? btw i have come to hate calling them "the kids" recently, it just feels like im playing into the hands of the losers like rosenthal and plaschke and morgan, etc.

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